


Festering

by Manager_K



Series: AN ABSOLUTE MONKEY RAGER [2]
Category: Minecraft (Video Game)
Genre: Bruises, DreamSMP - Freeform, Karl Jacobs Needs a Hug, Karl Jacobs is doing his best, Karl is sick :(, Mentions of Blood, OOC, Pain, Protective Sapnap (Video Blogging RPF), Sickness, Soft Sapnap (Video Blogging RPF), Time Travel, cannon-divergent
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-26
Updated: 2021-01-26
Packaged: 2021-03-12 08:47:37
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,725
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29007786
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Manager_K/pseuds/Manager_K
Summary: Your body begins to fall apart from the inside, like something is trying to ply the flesh from the walls of your organs. Time travel is definitely not worth the aftermath.A rewrite of “All the Time in the World”, I actually took more than an hour to go over it and make sure Karl and SapNap meet in the middle
Relationships: Karl Jacobs/Sapnap
Series: AN ABSOLUTE MONKEY RAGER [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2128020
Comments: 5
Kudos: 122





	Festering

**Author's Note:**

> It’s definitely not the greatest write ever but I enjoyed it, it feels less rushed to me? Still for sure could use some better pacing, but this is fine!

Karl knew something was changing, that something kept happening to him while he wasn’t there. He kept finding notes he didn’t remember writing around the house, kept drawing a blank when Quackity got upset with him for not showing up to a party. 

Then the sickness came. The nausea worse than being lost in a sea from his terrible stories, his throat became raw from puking every last bit he had in him.

The missing time was the worst part, his mind being inside of a story one moment and then returning to his body the next. 

It’s terrifying, to not know who you are, to get to know and love a family that isn’t actually yours for years, and then be rocketed back to a reality that is always out to get you.

Karl Jacobs barely counted as Karl Jacobs, his mind a gross amalgamation of people who he both was and wasn’t. He felt feverish one moment, and cold the next. His skin always felt just a little too tight, his chest a little too full of something that threatened to break his ribs just to escape.

It left him breathless and incapacitated for what seemed like days, being unable to tell up from down, past from present and future. 

In his few moments of clarity he almost spilled his secrets to his friends, he was tired of seeing moments that had already happened and hadn’t happened, he ached to have them be able to understand, just to see that they wouldn’t be angry with him. 

Luckily he knew better, and tried to work through the stupid semipermanent nausea, the disgusting bits of blood and what little food he could get down that came back up every time he stood.

It only seemed to get better a fraction of everyday, but Karl had no clue what fucking day it was, or if a day had passed at all. To him it was eons of the same things over and over again, and he could only hope that the visions he had of other timelines weren’t him actually traveling.

The worst of whatever his body was reacting to happened after the last time he had been taken away from some family of his. 

He didn’t wake up in bed like he usually did, he seemed to be writing incoherent scribbles into one of his journals. That was scary.

After checking through all of his other books he found nothing else to suggest he had been writing nonsense, but it still left him uneasy. 

In the end all he could do was lay on the cool floor and hope his body didn’t actually overheat and cook his brain. That’s how Sapnap found him, his house looking as though it had been ransacked and a with very suspicious body on the floor.

Karl was mad he managed to stay present for the loud yelling and chastising that came from the taller male. What a coincidence, he got the worst part of talking to Sapnap, thanks a lot Irene.

Everything continued to blur, and it was hard not to fall back to sleep, to allow himself to see visions of past and present lifetimes, to get momentary relief from the violent illness he had.

Sapnap made it better though. Karl recognized amongst the brown and red colors of his house a familiar face that dragged him around the house to eat and clean up.

He hated when Sapnap saw the worst and weakest part of him, the fact that he couldn’t shy away from the other as he spit up what little bile and blood littered in his stomach.

Sapnap cared for him all the same. 

Karl sobbed in between his moments of clarity, ashamed that Sapnap had to come and check on him at all, embarrassment increasing tenfold when he realized Sapnap didn’t care how frenzied he looked.

Somehow Sapnap had managed to give Karl a bath, in between his violent shuddering and his incoherent babbling about being dizzy.

It was nice, Karl managed to think over the excruciating pain. Still trembling down to the very center of his soul, and heaving with enough strength to lift a car, he appreciated the warm hands that guided him to bed, and the eyes that held questions but didn’t ask at all. 

His chest felt, full of knives, ones that carved out every inch of his lungs and throat. He had to talk to Sapnap though, had to explain something. Give an excuse at least as to why Karl looked to be dying. 

All the time traveler could do was whimper, his fists clenching and unclenching in the soft fabric of Sapnaps jacket. The man merely shushed him quietly, pushing large warm hands into his back, rubbing circles into the knobs of Karl’s spine that dulled the full-bodied ache he had.

“I really want to get married now-“ It was horrid, the amount of effort that it took to just speak, the amount of fire that lined his throat with each word

Sapnap looked surprised, maybe it was how raw and bloody Karl sounded, but he replied as if it didn’t matter, ”How about Spring then?”

Even though it came out as more of a gasp, Karl laughed, thank Irene he wasn’t the kind of person to be deterred from something like Karl.

”If you keep looking at me like that we might have to make it sooner-“ again Karl couldn’t finish his sentence, violent stabbing pain forcing him to curl into the pleasant warmth in front of him

More tears, more worried looks from Sap, more unnatural strength in Karl’s grip. Everything kept going downhill.

And if Karl grappled at Sapnap with enough force to bruise he didn’t say a word, not with how Karl begged him to stay, to hold him closer.

“Karl, I’m worried about you,” exactly what Karl didn’t want to hear, “I’m not leaving you, but I really don’t know how to help you, you won’t tell me what’s wrong.”

At least he wouldn’t leave, that made all of this the tiniest bit easier. He knew he was loved, in this moment of wretched pulsating pain, he was Karl Jacobs and he was loved.

Sapnap said wouldn’t leave. He promised. He promised. Sapnap wasn’t going to leave, he said so himself.

So why couldn’t Karl say anything?

He hadn’t registered that he was hyperventilating until he heard Sapnap mumble into his ear, and pushing hands on his lower back firmly. Fuck, fuck time travel, fuck being sick, fuck all of this.

”I don’t want you to go, please don’t leave-“ he wheezed, his hands splayed flat on Sapnaps chest, pulling his cloudy and absent eyes to look up at the others

“I’m not going anywhere, I’m right here, promise I’m not leaving you.” 

The tiny and brightly colored man could only cough, gasping and moving in closer to Sapnap, if that was even possible.

The gentle kiss on top of his head he actually felt, and he felt the way Sapnaps chest rumbled as he asked again, “Tell me what’s wrong, I can’t help unless you do.”

So less of a question and more of an order. Karl shook his head, and buried underneath the others chin, as if that would make the problem go away. 

“Sick, I’m really sick,” he mumbled, between hiccups and whines, his hands pushing at Sapnaps stomach, just to make sure that he was real

”This isn’t just sick Karl, this is having your insides rot and grow a mind of their own, so what’s wrong?” 

The soft brunette only pushed harder against Sapnaps stomach, enjoying the seconds that he tensed up, before he pulled Karl away from his body.

It was as if he weighed nothing to the other, the way he pulled him back by the scruff of his shirt, and it would have been hot if it didn’t send Karl into a spiraling panic.

Sapnap couldn’t resist letting him crawl back however, after Karl gave him the most wounded cry he had ever heard, apologizing profusely as the other sobbed against him, fingers rattling as they moved for as much contact as they could get.

Now neither of them knew what to do. What could Sapnap do if he didn’t know what was happening, what could Karl do if telling the other meant ruining possibly everyone’s life?

”Just lay here, please don’t move, I’m begging you.” 

How could anyone deny the pitiful and hurting thing that was Karl Jacobs.

It took hours, just for Karl to return to being able to control his brain, to convince his body to stop writhing, to keep still so Sapnap had the ability to run his hands up and down his body. 

Karl might have been Karl Jacobs in that moment, but who was he when Sapnap wasn’t there? What name did he have, if not Karl Jacobs?

It was as if a switch was flicked in his mind, and suddenly every soft touch of Sapnaps began to burn, the skin hiding under his clothes were alight with pain, and his face began to numb.

He couldn’t get away fast enough, thrashing to separate the two of them, barely whispering a hoarse, “It hurts-“ before Sapnap had let him go 

The fresh clothes after his bath seemed to tear his skin into bloody pieces, but as he clawed to rip it off he noted somewhere in the back of his mind that nothing was actually happening.

Miserable. The fitful and restless time traveler could only describe the experience as miserable. He ached to touch Sapnap, to wipe the worried look in his eyes away with soft kisses.

But everything burned, and his chest swelled again with the suffocating feeling from before. His ribs felt sore and they ached fiercely, every movement was pure agony. 

Through it all Sapnap waited, knowing now that there wasn’t anything that could be done, and that waiting meant more than the world to Karl. If he had any energy left, he probably would have blubbered incomprehensible thank you’s and apologies until he couldn’t talk for another week.

More and more agony, at one point it became too much and Karl began to shove at the bigger male who rested in the bed with him, gesturing that he was going to throw up again.

That definitely got him moving, almost launching himself straight up in the air to help Karl to the bathroom. 

How long had it been? Him retching into the toilet, only to have more blood and bile come up. How long had Sapnap been massaging the back of his skull for? 

Karl was exhausted, too weak to stand after Sapnap had brushed his teeth for him, wait, when the fuck did he get up from the toilet? 

It was a series of the same thing over and over again for almost a day, which is what Sapnap told him. It all melded together to create something that would give him nightmares for years.

He came back to just a small moment of peace, he wasn’t trembling like before, his muscles physically incapable of spasming any longer. Sapnap had fallen asleep, his brow creased in worry even while at rest.

Somehow he managed to shove his cold hands under the sweatshirt Sapnap wore, it was definitely warm and calmed his hummingbird of a heart. It was funny to watch Sapnaps nose scrunch at the temperature of his hands. 

Karl finally managed to get sleep there, next to the person who he loved more than himself, and as shitty as he felt he wouldn’t have traded it for the world.

Then for the first time in forever, after hours of uncomfortable and borderline painful sleep, Karl Jacobs woke up in his bed and not from another lifetime. He ached like he had been stuck in a broken washing machine, and his throat was definitely swollen and raw with blood and mucus. 

But he was himself, and that was progress. 

He couldn’t even make any noise, let alone move to wake up Sapnap. Luckily for him he already had a hand half way up the other shirt. It was definitely mean the way he dug his nails into the soft skin of his ribs, but he was desperate for water and to have his neck rubbed.

With a start the other was up, eyes wide wondering what was happening. Then he saw Karl, eyes starry and beautiful enough to worship for all of eternity.

”Goodmorning, are you alright now?”

A roll of Karls eyes and a broken huff was all he got, nails digging into his ribs again.

Karl committed the look of awe and wonder he got from Sapnap to memory, forgetting something as beautiful as that would be a sin of the highest caliber. 

Then he dug his nails into the idents he had left behind the last two times.

Sapnap finally got the message, expression changing to understanding, “Do you need anything? Hungry, thirsty? A bath?”

Karl groaned as much as he could at the thought of a bath, but his spine protesting at the thought of moving an inch. Again Sapnap read him like an open book, moving to gently pick him up, eyes trailing over any exposed skin, brows once more pinched together in worry.

It was difficult to see, but in the right lighting is was glaringly obvious. Karl was bruised pretty much everywhere, his chest such an even blue that he looked as if he had been crushed by a steamroller. It was a miracle he hadn’t actually broken any ribs, maybe it would stay that way if he was careful.

Sapnap was careful as he began to notice how injured the man was, working fluidly and making sure not to press on anything that could hurt Karl.

”Do you want anything else?” 

An unamused blank stare, and a gesture to his throat that took more energy than it should have

”Oh!”

To Karl sinking into the bathtub and taking a drink of water was more satisfying than, well he didn’t know if there was anything better. 

“Did you mean it?”

Karl let his head fall so he could look at Sapnap, wiggling his hand as much as he could before the other realized he wanted to hold Sapnap’s hand. 

”Mean what?” he winced at the frailness of his voice, it was almost creepy, it would have been if he didn’t know the sound came from himself

”When you said you wanted to get married,” he looked bashful, hand warm in Karl’s as he laid his head on the edge of the tub, “Did you really mean it?”

It was languid, no awkwardness, the way that Karl pulled Sapnap to meet him halfway and into a kiss. If Karl could have he would put his other hand gently on Sapnap’s face, a soft tug on his hair to apologize for the absolute workout that he was. 

Hopefully he got the point across, as he pulled back and caught the way Sapnap chased after his lips like he was starving for affection. 

“I’m tired.” 

Sapnap squeezed his hand, still starstruck and wondering, “So does this really mean you want to get married?”

Karl let his head fall back against the tub, his eyes closed as he wheezed out a laugh. Of course Sapnap couldn’t get the hint even after a kiss.

”If you’ll have me, I’d totally marry you-“ Sapnap continued to babble, his face glowing with barely contained excitement 

“Yes, be quiet, throat hurts to speak.”

In a half shout, which earned an exasperated glare from Karl, the taller pumped his hand in the air excitedly.

Karl felt his chest swell, not with the lead that had filled him before and threatened to rip him to pieces, but a softer, kinder feeling, like his heart was going to jump right out of his chest in joy.

So if after a bath in what felt like heaven, listening to honeyed words fueled with adoration, Karl let Sapnap worship him like a dog, and Karl had no mind to protest. 

And when Karl had enough strength to return the favor, he definitely did, hands wandering places they hadn’t ever dreamed of before. Lips murmuring about venues and nonsense about cake, pressing soft kisses to every part that he could reach.

**Author's Note:**

> *SLAMMING HANDS ON THE TABLE LIKE A STUPID FUCKJNG MONKEY* THEYRE JN LOVE YOUR HONOR


End file.
